The Police look younger every year
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 3:05 am
A primary school has appointed 10-year-olds as ‘packed lunch police’ with the power to inspect the food younger pupils bring to school – and even issue warnings if it is unhealthy.
Parents have started a petition against the scheme after receiving a letter telling them to pack only healthy items. Brooke Johnson, 34, whose children Charlee, seven, and Riley, five, are pupils, said: ‘It’s crackers. I decide what my children eat for lunch, not a 10 or 11-year-old.’ The letter from Hall Road Primary Academy in Hull states: ‘Year 6 will be packed lunch police and will be checking what children have in their lunches, with warning slips given if lunches do not meet our standards and awards for those that do. ‘Your packed lunch may include bread, pasta, crackers, rice, wraps, meat, cheese, fish, small yoghurt, fruit and vegetables. In order to be a healthy school, your packed lunch may not include crisps, chocolate spread, fizzy drink/energy drinks or food that needs heating up, eg micro chips.’ All pupils in the first three years of primary education have been provided with free school meals from this month – partly to stop parents giving children unhealthy food. But parents can still send their children with a packed lunch if they wish.
Miss Johnson, who started the petition, added: ‘My little girl came home from school starving because she hadn’t dared open her lunchbox. ‘She knew I had packed her sandwiches, crisps, a sausage roll, a small chocolate bar and apple juice. ‘I don’t see why she should risk being given one of these warning slips by another child just for eating her packed lunch. It’s ridiculous. 'If these kids are inspecting my children’s sandwich fillings, how can I be sure they are washing their hands after going to the toilet and aren’t picking their noses? One six-year-old boy was given a warning slip just for having a Kellogg’s cereal bar.’
